Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Worldbuilding A Queer Before: D&D As A Neomedievalism For A Modern Age, Brianna M. Thompson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has had countless participants and audience members in the course of its over fifty-year existence. It has also been the subject of several studies that attempt to capture its unique form of performative play. Yet, there has been a scarcity of scholarship on how D&D acts as a neomedievalism and how that can offer a queer kind of opportunity to its players, allowing them to find a place in a past that is historically inaccessible and yet endlessly in the process of being (re)imagined. Using an interweaving of archival theory with queer and performance studies, particularly …

The Right Way To Go Wrong: A Reflection, Peter A. Graham

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis documents my personal experience acting in Pomona College’s Fall 2024 production of The Play That Goes Wrong. I begin with an artist statement – a poem explaining the reasons why I act. The paper then moves into a general overview of the project, including my past training and future goals. The next section, which is the bulk of the material, contains chronological evidence of the production from start to finish and focuses on my attempt to find precise physicality. I finish with thoughts about the result as well as general reflections on how the process has shaped …

“A ‘Normal’ Life”: Red Dwarf, Temporality, And The Neuroqueer Absurd, Gretchen B. Graf

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The science fiction series Red Dwarf, beginning in 1988 and broadcasting sporadically over the past nearly four decades, takes place more than three million years in the future where human beings have gone extinct. All, that is, except one; the show’s central character, Dave Lister, is the last known living human being in the universe, outliving humanity by remaining in stasis during a radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew of the titular mining ship. Besides Lister, the narrative also focuses on the nonhuman beings that keep him company. Besides residing in the genre of science fiction, …

Emergent Sites Of Language Contact: Lexical Borrowing By Mexican Bilingual Speakers In Live-Streamed Tabletop Games, Ethan Sims

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The field of contact linguistics has investigated numerous sites of contact between languages and the resulting phenomena (Poplack et al.; 1988, for example); however, there remain many contact sites that have yet to be analyzed. The present dissertation views the lexical evidence of language contact between English and Spanish via the medium of live-streamed tabletop role-playing games. These games, often lacking accessible translations in languages other than English, have become a popular pastime over the last decade, which has increased the amount of contact between the two languages. Dungeons and Dragons, a roleplaying game which typically deals with fantasy elements, …

The Benefit Of New Perspective: An Analysis Of Postcolonial Adaptation, Sara L. Tilbe

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In our modern world, the concept of literary adaptation is not unheard of. Each release of a new, popular text comes with an underlying chance that it will likely be snatched up by Hollywood executives to be told through a cinematic setting. However, there is less fanfare when it comes to the topic of literary adaptation, particularly of famous texts that are deemed “classic” of the literary canon. Usually, any news of a literary adaptation of a classic book is meant with polarizing views from the general public. Some welcome the change, excited for what a new author can bring …

Heterogeneous Being: The Inhumanities And The Creative-Scientific Aesthetic, Steven L. Ogden

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Heterogeneous Being attempts to set the often-disunited aspects of the sciences and humanities in congruence and to extol and advance a hybrid creative-scientific aesthetic that moves beyond any restricted dimensions of its previously segregated fields of study. It likewise expresses the need to perpetuate that hybrid form of inquiry and representation to successfully address or convey the precarious realities of Earth’s ecological and environmental conditions. Heterogeneous Being asks readers to observe the inexhaustible proofs of our pluralized configurations with the nonhuman world, to recognize the agentic potentialities nonhuman subjects may hold both in and outside of those inhuman enmeshments, and …

Testigos, Pero No Protagonistas: Bioficciones, Postmemoria Y Trauma Transgeneracional En Las Narrativas De Nona Fernández Y Rita Indiana, Fiordaliza Ippolito

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines how the concepts of biopolitics and postmemory are addressed in the narratives of Chilean author Nona Fernández (1971—) and Dominican author Rita Indiana (1977—) when portraying the dynamics of control and power in the totalitarian regimes of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) and Joaquín Balaguer Twelve Years (1966-1978). Methodologically, the study explores biopolitics, which regulates the lives and bodies of citizens, and necropolitics, which dictates who can live and who must die, to understand state repression in both narrative contexts. Through the concept of postmemory, the research observes how the trauma of dictatorships is transmitted generationally and manifests …

Poética Transatlántica Vanguardista De Winétt De Rokha, Magda Portal, Norah Lange Y Ernestina De Champourcín, Mirna L. Alvarez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

En el auge de la vanguardia histórica, desde Europa hasta Hispanoamérica, intelectuales de ambos lados del atlántico coincidieron en renovar los géneros literarios. El objetivo de la vanguardia consistía en promover diferentes formas de expresión escrita para manifestar su inconformidad sobre los acontecimientos sociales, estos provocaron cambios a la estética del momento. Es decir que se buscaba deconstruir a través de diferentes Ismos como el futurismo, el ultraísmo, el creacionismo, el estridentismo entre otros para innovar la escritura dentro de la literatura del siglo XX. Las estrategias del vanguardismo consistían en las múltiples imágenes insólitas fragmentadas, lo arbitrario de la …

Phantasma, Grace Wright

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Ever since the infamous Ides of March, scholars have been debating the true psychology behind Brutus’s betrayal. The purpose of this project is to take a step back from the politicized motivations and explore the emotional, strenuous conditions of Julius Caesar’s assassination. This project will transform William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into a novella with its central focus on the relationship dynamics between the key figures of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. The intention of the novella is to not only analyze the play through a critical queer lens, but to interrogate the themes of violence and desire that surround male relationships …

Ethnicity And Imitatio In Isidore Of Seville, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

Analyses of imitatio imperii commonly focus on the ceremonial and symbolic aspects of the Roman Empire—victory celebrations, creation of a capital, ceremonial dress and language, imagery on coins, and legal pronouncements—not ethnicity. Perhaps one reason is that in modern English, ‘imitation’ carries derogatory connotations of uninspired copying that remove the agency and creativity of the imitator. Imitated items and practices are seen as poor copies of originals, the latter of which are much more worthy of attention.2 Under this definition, one would expect an imitator of Rome to claim to be Roman, resembling Athaulf’s claim that Goths were unable to …

Carlitos And The Search For The Golden Cascaron: Continuing A Cultural Tradition, Manuel F. Medrano

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dystopian Fiction As Liberatory Practice: Dystopian Theory In The Classroom, Hailey C. Bowen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Dystopian Fiction as Liberatory Practice, a title inspired by bell hooks’ “Theory as Liberatory Practice,” is a proposal for an English 2090 course that focuses on dystopian theory. This class is centered on The Nine Symptoms of Dystopian Theory, which I developed using multiple theoretical models including Afrofuturist Reading Practices, Marxist theory, and feminist, gender, and sexuality theories in conjunction with my own observations about the genre. Dystopian theory is a nine-step reading process that I have developed to reframe any text as dystopian. It is possible to argue that any text is dystopian using this process because, in any …

Truth, Reconciliation, And Neoliberalism: Remembering And Forgetting Pinochet’S Chile, Aimee Leigh Gallagher

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………..................4

III. Primary Documents and Headnotes.....26

IV. Textbook Critique……………….............36

V. Textbook Entry…………………………....42

Occupied Lands, Occupied Histories: Activist-Historians And The Red Power Movement, Elena Rose Paz Thompson

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay.............................4

II. Primary Document Collection......25

III. Textbook Critique........................37

IV. New Textbook Writing.................42

The Third Revolution: How The Haitian Revolution Redefined The Age Of Revolution, Cedric Rule-Becker

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay.................................2

II. Primary Source Documents............15

III. Textbook Critique...........................25

IV. New Textbook Entry.......................28

Pilgrims On The Upward Way: The African American Community In Eureka Springs And The Church At Its Heart, Kelli Ladwig

2025 Research Poster Competition

On May 13, 1899, an unknown hand began a ledger. The heading for that page began, "Yeartley Conference Record Book of Pilgrim Chapel A.M.E. Church." The remainder of the page is blank. The following entry dates to April 18, 1902, and details collections in a different hand. These pages are from the Pilgrim Chapel AME Church in Eureka Springs and Harrison. From 1899 to 1911, this church served as the center of the African-American community in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, providing unwavering support to its members through community and worship. In time, they would buy land and build a church. The …

Into Eternity: Legacy Of The Saint Patrick's Battalion, Preston S. Dyess

2025 Symposium

“The Saint Patrick’s Battalion” was a rogue unit of Irish-Catholic soldiers who deserted from the U.S. Army shortly before or during the Mexican-American War. Disillusioned by their mistreatment in the American army, they found common ground with the Mexican people over their shared faith and national story. John Riley, the battalion’s eventual leader, deserted shortly before the war broke out and was captured by Mexican forces. After some convincing, he was given a commission by Mexican General Pedro de Ampudia and instructed to raise a company of fellow deserters. The unit served courageously, garnering praise and honor in the eyes …

Revolutionizing The Immaculate Conception: The Limitations Of Medieval Theology And The Advancements Of John Duns Scotus, Emily G. Knoppe

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Although in the modern era, the Immaculate Conception is a controversial doctrine that prompts conflict primarily between Catholic and non-Catholic groups, during the medieval period Roman Catholics were greatly divided on the topic. Opposition to the belief hinges not only on its lack of scriptural basis and complicated theology, which some deem as placing Mary outside of the need for Christ’s redemption, but also on the fact that it was not declared dogma until 1854 by Pope Pius IX. In this thesis, I first consider how Augustine of Hippo’s original sin theology laid the foundation for avid rejection of the …

A Cadaver Story: Relationality In The Anatomy Laboratory, Stephanie Teasley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Cadavers in the human anatomy laboratory occupy a liminal social space, a circumstance that presents a variety of challenges for anatomy students. Cadavers are intended to be scientific objects for study, but their human status makes dissection uniquely challenging. Many of the obstacles to working in the laboratory result from discomfort experienced at the thought of cutting a person (i.e. a social being). In this project, I use ‘cadaver’ to indicate a category of being created in and for the anatomy laboratory. This is distinct from the more general ‘dead body’ in that the category cadaver enables emotional distance and …

The Syntax Of Sports Class 7: Information Flow, Patrick Barry

Books

What can sports fans who start “the wave” at a big stadium teach us about getting people to speak up in class or at an important meeting? What can the poet Maya Angelou and the boxer Joe Louis teach us about streamlining sentences and paragraphs? And how exactly do we get our ideas to flow in powerfully persuasive ways? Explore these and other questions in the seventh volume of The Syntax of Sports, a series based on the innovative and highly interdisciplinary courses Professor Patrick Barry teaches at the University of Michigan.

Keepunumuk: Teaching The Deconstruction Of The “Myth Of The First Thanksgiving”, Pierce Thompson

A with Honors Projects

The goal of this project was to volunteer to teach a reading activity for elementary school students about the indigenous peoples (Wampanoag) contact in 1621 from the indigenous perspective and deconstruct the “First Thanksgiving myth” using the book “Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story” published on August 2, 2022, by authors Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten.

The Luxury Belief: How Casual Political Labeling Harms The Lower Classes, Yan Lei

A with Honors Projects

This essay argues that casual political and moral labeling, when used as a luxury belief, misleads followers, fosters intellectual complacency, and amplifies misunderstandings about complex issues such as race.

The Force Without Faces: Asian Culture And Its Invisible Role In Star Wars, Charlie Posrivisuthikool

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

M.A. ITP Thesis Paper Abstract:

This thesis paper – The Force without Faces - Asians Culture and Its Invisible Role in Star Wars – analyzes the relationship between George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and the works of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), along with Flash Gordon (1936). The Western idea of a borrowed culture plays a significant role in crafting one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood history. Following Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other theorists, George Lucas takes the audience on …

Beyond Entertainment – An Analysis Of Minecraft: Education Edition As An Inclusive Educational Platform For Diverse Learners, Herschel Meusa

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

Minecraft: Education Edition is examined as an interactive and educational media object and art form. Through an analysis of its game's UI, interactive design, and user-friendliness, players are immersed in the game. Although Minecraft provides an open-ended design that fosters creativity, freedom, and collaborative learning, its structured instructional scaffolding, adaptive difficulty, and comprehensive accessibility features make it less inclusive for all learners. This thesis argues that these gaps serve as warnings to educational Media Arts practitioners working on interactive media design and lessons about interface design, user agency, and inclusion in game mechanics. This research examines the structure of Minecraft …

Soundwaves Of Change: How Paperboy Prince Redefined Activism Through Art In Bushwich, Omar Kwesi Hurlock

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

This thesis examines how Paperboy Prince, a Bushwick-based artist and activist, employs multimedia art forms to challenge social norms and foster community change. Through analysis of their music, performances, and community initiatives, particularly at the Love Gallery, this research demonstrates how Prince combines artistic expression with grassroots activism to address gentrification, economic inequality, and social justice in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The study employs theoretical frameworks including post-cinema theory, Afrofuturism, and digital performance theory to analyze Prince's work. Key findings reveal how Prince's artistic practice creates new modes of political discourse through: (1) the fusion of digital and physical activism, (2) the …

Cold War Karl Mundt: The Utility Of Anticommunism During The Eightieth Congress, Wattier Zachary

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines South Dakota House Representative Karl Mundt during the Eightieth Congress and his role in helping to build a movement and consensus over domestic and international communism. I argue that not only did Mundt help facilitate the Second Red Scare that allowed for the “McCarthyism” of the 1950s to thrive, but Mundt also aided in selling a combative diplomacy towards the USSR which intensified relations into a Cold War. As a ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mundt advocated for the use of soft power, education, information, and propaganda to sell his idealized Americanism to …

[Review Of The Book Alternative Politics In Contemporary Japan: New Directions In Social Movements, By D. H. Slater And P. G. Steinhoff (Eds.)], Charmaine N. Willis

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Scholars have characterized Japan’s civil society as having been in an “ice age” for several decades, especially when focusing on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Robert Pekkanen, Japan’s Dual Civil Society: Members Without Advocates, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). This is in stark contrast not only with the vibrant civil societies in most Western democracies but with prominent social movements in Japanese history, such as the anti-Anpo protest movement that began in the late 1950s. This movement opposed the renewal of the US-Japan security treaty (Anpo), which permitted the US its massive military base presence in Japan. There were strikes, mass …

The Impact Of Teaching Students Stress And Trauma Alleviation Techniques For Coping With Distressing Materials In First-Year Composition, Faye Monique Scott

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Trauma can impact the way a student learns and focuses. In higher education, without instructors realizing it, classes may retraumatize or trigger students with the texts, media, or materials utilized. Research suggests that little attention is given to helping students deal with potentially traumatizing course materials and students inside the classrooms may be impacted by trauma whether the teacher is aware or not. This dissertation examined the effects of teaching students specific coping strategies—Trigger Warnings (TWs) and Stress and Trauma Alleviation Techniques (STATs) —while reading, writing, and reflecting on possibly distressing materials in First-Year Composition courses through a mixed methods …

The Fiction Of Possibility: How Possible Worlds Theory Explains The Impossible Worlds Of Science Fiction, Jacob Burlingame

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ways that science fiction texts convey to the reader the worlds in which they are set. It identifies four main strategies through which a science fiction text conveys its world: Neologisms, Secondary Texts, Actual-World Analogs, and Exposition. Neologisms include any words that are coined by the author to describe an entity that only exists in the text world, which creates a fuller world by creating a referent for them. Secondary Texts are any other documents alluded to by the primary text, whether created for the text world or imported from the actual world; these secondary texts …

Bytes, Banter, And The Bible: An Interdisciplinary Account Of Objective Meaning, Cameron Bonin

Senior Honors Theses

The claim that the Bible has objective meaning is contested in a postmodern world. This claim can be more persuasively defended when it is addressed by insights from multiple disciplines. In particular, the field of computer science is apt to illuminate the concept of meaning through its reflection on the nature of languages and its concern with the accurate transmission of information. By synthesizing insights from the field of computer science, such as that of Claude Shannon, with Nicholas Wolterstorff’s use of speech-act theory, the concept of meaning can be understood more clearly. Consequently, this synthesis assists in answering questions …